Stabilator for bedsprings



Sept. 9, 1941.

T. s. FOLEY STABILATOR FOR BEDSPRINGS Filed May 20, 1940 2 Shets-Sheet 1mvsm on THOMAS s. FOLEY ATTORNEY! S 1941- T. s. FOLEY 2,255,419

' STABILATOR FOR BEDsPR'IN s Filed May 20, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r Imvsm'o THOMAS S. FOLEY ATTORNEY Patented se ta, 1941 UNlTE D STATESPATENT OFFICE srspnnroi i ra i r lnnsrnmcs I Thomas- 8'. Foley, UticaJN.Y.,

turing Company,

Brothers Manufac a corporation of New York Application May 2.0.1246,Serial I 2 (01. -252) My present invention relates to bed springs of.

of compression springs the type where a plurality and alower boraredisposed between an upper der frame.

'. which stabilator is economical in construction,

efflcient, durable and noiselessin operation and not liable to get outof order.

In bed springs of the type mentioned, due to the extreme flexibility ofthe whole series of compression springs, the upper frame can vibratehorizontally, usually from side to side of the bed nslignor to FosterUtica, N. Y.,

the stabilator link at the farther end of the bed spring.

spring. This float horizontally is'very undesirable and dispieasing tothe occupant of the bed. Such vibration can start on very ht movement ofthe occupant of the bed and, ontinues for several-lateral movements,since there is nothing in the ordinary plain bed spring of this type todefinitely bring such vibrations to an end. It is the main purpose ofthis invention to provide a construction that will satisfactorilycontrol such lateral floating" movement and prevent such horizontal orlateral vibration. I have called from the heretofore often usedstabilizers, which are devices for making the upper frame of a bedspring move up and down in a vertical line. My stabilator is notintended to the upper frame to move up and down in a vertical direction,but does cause the upper frame to move downwardly on a slight curve witha relatively long radius, which causes so slight a sidewise movement asto be unnoticeable but does prevent vibration laterally or in ahorizontal direction.

A still further purpose of my invention is to provide a stabilator ofsuch construction and operation and cooperation with the two borderframes of the lateral movement occurring when the bed spring iscompressed causes movement in opposite directions at the opposite endsand thus substantially neutralizes even this slight sidewise. movementthrough the middle of the bed spring between its two ends.

Further purposes and advantages of my invention will appear from-thespecification and claims herein.

Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a bed spring equipped withstabilatorsembodying my invention.- Most of the compression springs areomitted from the drawings in order to more clearly show and does notcompelbed spring that even the slight of the bed spring il, a pluralityof' interposed vertically arranged compression springs I! supported attheir lower this device a stabilator, as distinct thereof fastenedtogether Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 when the upper frame hasbeen compressed towards the lower frame, and showing the upper framemoved to the left hand side slightly, relative to the lower frame.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view on linev 3-3 of Fig. 1 but on aconsiderably enlarged scale.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a bed spring embodying my invention, thesprings and the spring-supporting members upon the upper and lowerborder frames being omitted in order to more plainly show the borderframes, the upper border frame being shown in dash lines to illustrateits position when the bed spring is compressed.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view on lustrated is of theconventional type including a lower border frame iii, an upper borderframe ends and held in place at their upper ends by conventionalspring-supporting members ll carried by the lower and upper borderframes in and Ii. The lower border frame is commonly formed of angleiron either as different lengths at the corners or as a continuouslength thereof encircling the whole frame. Ordinarily the horizontal webIQ of the angle iron lower frame is disposed at the top of the frame andutilized more or less as the direct support of the lower ends of thecompression springs along the borders of the bed spring. The lower frameill is provided with a plurality of ordinarily crosswise extending bandsor strips ii to support in any ends of the springs i2 that are inside ofthe lower frame. Commonly on bed springs of this typevnarrow metal bandsIt are used extending crosswise of the bed spring and connecting themiddle portions of the springs 62. Commonly also longitudinallyextending wires it connect the cross bands It and the central portionsof the springs in the longitudinal rows.

The upper frame it may consist of a lighter form of angle iron formingin one continuous strip, of the frame, or the upper border frame mayconsist simply of a continuous strong wire or rod 31,asinFigs.4and5.

Ordinarily the means for supporting and holding the upper ends of thesprings I! are links to the drawings in a more particular description itwill be seen that the bed spring 11- desired manner the loweras in Figs.1 and 2, both the sides and ends or small helical springs connected tolaterally extending and longitudinally. extending bands either of metalor webbing or any combination thereof, which intersecting bands form themattress supporting surface and are suitably attached at their ends tothe upper border frame The upper ends of the border springs may bedirectly attached by suitable means to the upper border frame. A moredetailed description two border frames I place a connecting link 2!.

One end of each of these links is pivoted to or operatively pivoted tothe lower border frame and the other end of the link is pivoted to oroperatively pivoted to the upper frame along that edge of the bedspring. These two connecting links 28 will be placed at the oppositeends of the bed spring as that arrangement is necessary for neutralizinglateral vibration.

Lateral vibration or side sway is much more com- 1 men than lengthwisesway and more displeasing to the occupant of the bed than lengthwisesway or vibration.

Ordinarily the. connecting links cannot be pivoted directly to the lowerborder frame and usually not even to the upper border frame, the reasonfor this being that in ordinary bed springs of this type the lowerborder frame is used to provide a direct support for the lower andsmaller ends of the compression springs |2 along 'the border of the bedspring. The upper ends of these springs are usually much larger than thelower ends, thus obviously requiring the upper border frame to be on aline farther out than the lower border frame. Notwithstanding thisarrangement of the upper border frame being farther out than itscorresponding portion of the lower border frame, I provide an operativepivoted connection between corresponding ,ends of the two frames byproviding an angle bracket 22 for securing the lower end of each link toa portion of the lower border frame. The horizontal arm 23 of thisbracket 22 is placed flat against the upper surface of the horizontallyarranged web it of the angle iron shaped lower cross frame it andfastened thereto as by rivets 25. The upstanding arm 26 of the bracket22 projects upward from near the outer edge of the horizontal web M ofthis part of the lower frame l0.

Preferably as shown in Fig. 3, the lower end of the connectinglink islocated outside of the upright arm 26 of the angle bracket 22 andpivoted thereto as by a shouldered rivet 28, placed with its head to theoutside of the link 2| with an annular washer 29 placed beneath the headof said rivet or to the right thereof, as the parts are seen in Fig. 3.The relatively larger portion of the shank of this rivet projectsthrough a suitable hole provided near the lower end of the link 2| andto the inside of the link there is placed about the said large portionof the shank of the rivet another annular washer 3|. Just beyond thiswasher 3| the inner portion of the shank of said rivet is of definitelysmaller diameter, producing the desired shoulder 33. This shoulder facesinwardly and is adapted to directly engage the outer surface of theouter upturned arm 26 of said angle bracket. The inner extremity of therivet is headed over against the inner face of the said upstanding arm28 so as to rigidly fasten said rivet in place without pinching the link2| against either the head of the rivet or the upstanding arm 28 of thebracket. The washers 29 and 3| are placed on the rivet to insure theeasy pivoting action of the link 2| upon the pivot 30 without frictionand without noise.

The link 2| is bent slightly outwardly soon after it leaves theupstanding arm 28 of the angle bracket 22, and towards its upper end thelink is bent inwardly to a vertical plane so as to be parallel with thevertical portion that is pivoted to the upstanding arm 28 of bracket 22.In this way the upper end of the link is oflset the proper amountoutwardly to let its upper end he pivoted directly to the downhangingweb of the upper frame, as shown in Fig. 3, where an angle iron form ofupper web is used, or so as to be operatively pivoted to the upper framewhere that frame is simply a round rod, as hereinafter described more indetail.

As is suggested in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the upper border frame may be alsocomposed of an angleiron shaped member. The upper end of the link 2|will be pivoted thereto preferably by means of a shouldered rivet 34,substantially as described for the shouldered rivet 28 used at the lowerend of this link, and so not needing to be further described herein.Preferably as shown in Fig. 3 however, the upper end of the link 2! willbe mounted upon the inner side of the vertical down-hanging web 35 ofthe angle iron 36 used in this particular construction for the upperborder frame. In this construction as shown in Fig. 3, the largeoriginal head 21 of this rivet 34 and the enlarged portion of the shankof this rivet will be at the inside of the web 35, so that the shoulder30 of this shouldered rivet will be utilized against the inner side ofthe web 35 when the outwardly projecting extremity of the rivet isheaded over against the outer face of said web to permanently fastenthis rivet in place while still allowing an easy rotation of the link onsaid rivet. The usual annular washers of proper material will be placedat either side of the upper end of the link on the pivot, to prevent anynoise in the action of the link.

In the bed spring shown 'in Fig. 4, the upper border frame H isindicated as being formed of a strong wire or round rod 31. Such roundrod is not adapted in practice to have directly pivoted thereto theupper end of a connecting link 2|, so I provide another form of bracket38 to which the connecting link may be pivoted. This bracket, as seen inthe enlarged vertical sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4, isconveniently constructed of a length of suitable band iron and has itscentral portion closely wrapped around the rod 31, forming an almostcomplete ring 39, and the ends 40 and 4| of this ring are brought flattogether and project away from the rod 31 more or less as shown in Fig.5. These two ends are permanently fastened together by the shoulderedrivet 42, the head43 of which is shown to the inside or to the right asseen in Fig. 5 of the upper end of the connecting link 2 I, so that saidlink freely pivots on the enlarged shank portion of said rivet While theshoulder 44 of said rivet bears against the right hand outer face of theinner end piece ll of the bracket. Then when the outwardly projectingextremity of the rivet is headed over in the usual way the said pivot isrigidly fastened to the bracket 38. Then the, portions of the strap, asat 45 .(Fig. 6), forming the bracket between the rivet or drivenstrongly together so as to even distort slightly the circle of theinclosed rod 31 as well as the said portions of the band iron formingthe bracket. This operation binds the bracket so closely to the iron rodas to prevent sliding of the bracket on the rod and so tightly that anypossible rotation of the bracket upon the rod is prevented. Preferablyfabric washers will be placed at the opposite sides of the upper end ofthe link between the link and the head of the rivet and between the linkand its bracket in order to prevent any possible noise from the metalparts at this joint.

It will be understood that the stabilator links H are long relative tothe cooperating parts of the bed spring so as to make the upper borderframe, when compressed towards the lower border frame, travel through avery gentle curve. This is best seen in Figs. 1 and 2 where thestabilator links 2| are operatively pivotally connected to the oppositeends of the bed spring. As will be seen in these views and as is thepreferred construction, the said links have a length several times thedistance between the two frames when they are not compressed together,or, stated in another way, the said links may :be in length preferablyat least about half the width of the bed spring. In Figs. 1 and 2 thenear link 2| is pivotally fastened at its lower end to the bracket 22upon the lower frame i0, and the upper and left hand end of the link isoperatively pivoted to the upper frame ii. It will be obvious that asthis bed spring is compressed, as by the weight of a person lying uponit, the upper border frame II will be caused to move slightly towardsthe left, as indicated by the dotted curved line going down from thecenter of the pivot at the upper end of the link. 2i. Due to therelatively long radius of the link 2| this curve, it will be seen, isvery gentle and the sidewise movement, in normal use about one-fourthinch, and even on complete compression of the bed spring as for packingwill be very slight, in practice only about five-eighths inch.

While this amount of side movement is so small as to be almostimperceptible to the occupant of the bed, I have constructed thepreferred form of my invention in such a manner as to very largelyneutralize even this slight amount of sidewise movement. I haveaccomplished this result by arranging the stabilator links 2| at theopposite ends of the bed spring in reverse positions. This is bestunderstood by observing Fig. 1 wherein, as already mentioned, I havedescribed the near link 2| as operatively pivoted to its lower and righthand end to the lower frame l0, while the upper and left hand end ofthis near link is operatively pivoted to the upper border frame The link2| at the further'end of this bed spring is operatively pivoted at itslower and left hand end to the lower frame it but its upper and righthand end is operatively pivoted to the upper frame II. This reversearrangement of the two stabilator links is also plainly shown in Fig. 4which is a plan view of the two border frames.

42 and the rod 31 are punchedserver.

' tion of the said upper frame.

In this plan view the left hand end of the bed springis the end shown inFigs. 1 and 2 of the drawings. As already explained and shown by acomparison of Figs. 1 and 2 the upper frame will move very slightly tothe -left as shown in Fig. 2. Accordingly when this bed spring is shownin plan vi w as in Fig. 4 the left hand end of the bed spr ng will havethe left hand end of the upper border frame move slightly farther awaywhile reversely the right hand end of the upper border frame ii willmove toward the ob- The relative position of the upper frame after suchreverse movement at its two ends is diagrammatically shown on a somewhatenlarged and exaggerated scale by the dotted line posi- It will beobvious from the foregoing that by thus causing the 0D- posite ends ofthe upper frame to move their slight amount in opposite directions whenthe bed spring is compressed, the amount of this sidewise motion willdecrease as the longitudinal center of the bed springis approached andthat in fact at the central zone lengthwise of the bed spring there willbe no sidewise motion. It will thus be seen that I have accomplished thefurther purpose of neutralizing even the slight sidewise movementincident to using the stabilator links 2! as shown.

What I claim as new is:

1. In a bed spring, the combination of upper and lower border frames,spring supporting cross members on said frames, a plurality ofvertically arranged compression springs disposed between said frameswith their opposite ends secured to the cross members of said frames, a'rigid connecting link at each end of the bed spring, each link havingvone end operatively pivoted to the upper frame and its other endoperatively piv- -oted to the lower frame, the length of said linksbeing approximately half the width of the bed spring so that lateralvibration of the upper frame relative to the lower frame is preventedbut free movement of the upper frame towards the lower frame is allowed,said links being reversely arranged at the two ends of the bed spring sothat on compression of the bed spring the lateral movement of the upperframe at the two ends of the bed spring is in opposite directions.

2. In a bed spring, the combination of upper and lower border frames,spring supporting cross members on said frames, a plurality ofvertically arranged compression springs disposed between said frameswith their opposite ends secured to the cross members of said frames, arigid connecting link at each end of the bed spring, each link havingone end operatively pivoted to the upper frame and its other endoperatively pivoted to the lower frame, the length of said links beingconsiderably greater than the distance between the frames when the bedspring is not compressed, so that lateral vibration of the upper framerelative to the lower frame is prevented but free movement of the upperframe towards the lower frame is allowed, said links being reverselyarranged at the two ends of the bed spring so that on compression of thebed spring the lateral movement of the upper frame at the two ends ofthe bed spring is in opposite directions.

THOMAS S. FOLEY.

